Media essays

Regional Press and Community: The Ballarat Courier

by Kathy Bedford

(2002)

The Ballarat Courier is a wonderful regional newspaper, just ask the staff. They will tell you how it provides all the daily news you need, is more accountable than metropolitan papers and provides a far superior news service to other regional newspapers in comparative markets. The Courier's staff will tell you how it is a vital and responsible voice for the Ballarat community. In fact their mission says it all "to build our community through a quality newspaper which is responsible and accountable". Academic comment, though fairly limited and mostly dated, paints a negative view of regional press as parochial and conservative, under-resourced, dictated to and controlled by advertisers and the community's elite. In this article we will examine whose view is correct. We will look at how the Ballarat Courier serves its community in its handling of politics, controversy, supposed negative constraints and the finding of stories.

Contrasting the role of the Ballarat Courier with the Bendigo Advertiser
To appreciate the significance the Ballarat Courier plays in its community a comparative study is useful. The Bendigo Advertiser is also a daily paper catering to a similar size readership; both cities have a population around 85,000. The Ballarat Courier has a circulation of 21,000 compared to 14,000 for the Bendigo Advertiser. The Advertiser employs around 100 staff, the Courier employs 230 (although 30-40 of these staff are involved in on-site printing in Ballarat, Bendigo does not have its own printer). The figures paint a powerful picture of the importance to the Ballarat community of its local paper. In fact nine out ten Ballarat residents read the Courier in a given week (Roy Morgan 1999).

The editor of the Bendigo Advertiser, Wayne Gregson, attributes the difference in circulation figures to the different economies of the two cities. He says "Bendigo is and always has been a poorer city. It does not have the entrenched support of a wealthy pastoral sector (the Western District) to underpin it. We have higher unemployment rates and lower average household incomes. From the paper's point of view, what this means is that our papers get handed on more than the Ballarat Courier". It is interesting to note that although Gregson blames Bendigo's poorer economy for the lower circulation figures his newspaper actually costs more than the Ballarat Courier. The cost difference must be taken into account with the Courier selling for ninety cents (change from a dollar), the Advertiser costing a whole gold coin.
Comparing the papers at face value is a little more difficult as content varies day to day. Following the release of the Federal budget the Bendigo Advertiser's coverage remained at the national level, the Ballarat Courier made the story local by assembling a panel of local business and civic leaders to comment on the ramifications of the budget on the local industry and community. It might not even be the Ballarat Courier's focus on local news stories that gives it the circulation edge over the Bendigo Advertiser but simply the difference in the number of photographs of local people the two papers feature. People love to see themselves and their friends in print and by publishing a daily page of photographs titled "People and Places" the Ballarat Courier fulfills another need in its local community.

Comparing regional and metropolitan press
A comparison between provincial and metropolitan press is not so straightforward. As Frawley points out, the differences in resources needs to be taken into account especially the enormous variation in staffing levels (1987:10). Despite the differences in resources a comparison of the role the metropolitan and local papers play in the community is still relevant. At a panel discussion into community journalism, former president of the New York Press Association, Vicki Simons defined regional press as "nose-close-to-the-ground reporting that chronicles the everyday events in our towns" (1998:www.oswego.edu/ccj/). Editor of the Courier Stuart Howie says it comes down to the newspapers focus, "the mantra to me is local, local, local. Our franchise is on local news and information and we can do that better than anyone else". With an emphasis on local issues and everyday events the newspaper becomes a part of the smaller community. It is relied on by the citizens as a chronicler of their lives in a way that a metropolitan paper could never be.

Another point of comparison with metropolitan newspapers is that of accountability. David Ellery is a day news editor with the Ballarat Courier and has extensive experience on regional newspapers throughout Australia. Speaking in his role on the State Executive of the journalist's section of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alignment, Ellery says that regional press is superior to metropolitan because of a much higher level of accountability. "If we drop the ball, which occasionally happens, you're going to hear about it the next time you go to a party. Our office is extremely visible and everybody knows where it is with a smaller, more involved community there is a far greater sense of ownership of the paper by the community and this holds true with all regional media". Lauterer describes it as the triple A club, he says regional papers have to strive to be more accurate than their metropolitan counterparts, because they are more accessible they are more accountable (2000:39). Howie agrees "you do need to be careful how you relay the news it's the style and tone of your presentation which is very important in telling the same story. The Herald Sun might come in and kick some heads I say that as a community our journalists need to have a love affair with the community, don't scaremonger or needlessly panic people, you can write quite serious news in a more thoughtful and intelligent manner".

Do regional newspapers reflect the views of the local elite?
One of the recurring criticisms of regional newspapers is that they reflect the views of the local elite (Jackson 1971:43, Wild 1983:5, Ward 1985:206, Frawley 1987:13, Mowbray 1988:49, Gaziano 1985:573). Ellery strongly refutes this criticism "if the 'elite' represent a proportion of less than ten percent of the community why would anyone who is in the business of selling papers restrict their market to ten percent or above". Despite Ellery's pragmatism on the issue there may be some justification for this criticism. Regional newspapers rely heavily on civic leaders as sources of news. As mentioned earlier, the Courier assembled a panel of civic leaders to comment on the local ramifications of the Federal Budget. The Courier actually has a regular meeting with Ballarat's business leaders to ask their opinion on the paper's direction. The Community Advisory Board meets three monthly with the Editor, General Manager and Sales Manager. Community representatives include the principal of Ballarat High School, business leader David Haymes of Haymes paints and sporting hero Steve Monaghetti. It is an impressive line up of local leaders, but not, one would argue, representative of the wider community. When asked if he felt the Courier reflected the views of Ballarat's elite Howie responded, "I think we can all lose a bit of perspective at times because of the people we mix with. As editor you do mix with the powerbrokers. You're part of the movers and shakers of the town because, along with politicians, bureaucrats, heads of education and health and sport, we have an important role to move the community forward". By the editors own admission the Courier is at risk of losing touch with the lower socio-economic groups in its community, but Howie argues that the Courier acts as a mirror reflecting the aspirations and moods of the whole community.

Conservatism in regional Victoria and its influence on local press
It is worthwhile examining what sort of community the Courier is reflecting. Ward claims that politics in rural Victoria are predominantly conservative and that "clearly there are grounds for regarding the country press as one of the props of the conservatism it mirrors" (1985:208). A recent forum commissioned by the State government into Victoria's Western region found "the region was above average in its proportion of more conservative groups" (1998:12). Ellery disagrees "Ballarat is dynamic, very vibrant and in a wide range of areas has leaders with vision, courage and ability, more so than you would get in comparable population centers in a metropolitan area like Melbourne where there would be a tendency not so much to focus on your geographic, ethno-graphic community but rather just to dispense the largesse that is doled out by state and federal governments and upsetting rate payers as little as possible. Because country communities are more visible people feel more strongly, they're actually more pro-active. If anything I see the great urban wasteland, those wonderful 'burbs' as the home of Australian conservatism, not the bush". There is some debate then over whether or not the Ballarat community is conservative in nature. It is through analysis of the city's political leanings that we can finally discern if Ballarat, and subsequently its paper, is conservative.
It may no longer be possible to equate conservatism with Liberal voting but if we do acknowledge this link then Ballarat is only 'marginally' conservative. The political role of the Courier is important when the marginal nature of Ballarat, at both federal and state levels, is considered. At the last state election the seats of Ballarat East and West both went from Liberal to Labor and Catherine King was the only Labor candidate to take a Liberal seat in the recent federal election. Ward's claim of the dominance of conservative politics in rural Victoria is obviously outdated. The Bracks government would laugh at his claim that "the ALP is no threat to entrenched conservative parties" (1985:203). Times have changed in regional Victoria and the Ballarat Courier reflects those changes and is not, therefore, a conservative paper.

Balance of stories in the Ballarat Courier
The Ballarat Courier does not rely heavily on national or state political stories. Howie explains that because of the Courier's local emphasis they will try to discern what issues are important to their readers and then put these to the local members of parliament. This was particularly the case during the recent federal election. Major issues such as the plight of the asylum seekers were made local by getting the view of local candidates. Ballarat is fortunate (or perhaps unfortunate) that because of its marginal political nature the leaders of the major parties make time to visit during an election campaign. This then becomes local news and it is not unusual to see the country's leaders pictured on the front page of the Courier. When it comes to political reporting Ellery says, "local issues are whatever people are talking about at the pub". If people are talking about it, then it is local news.

When it comes to finding news and deciding on a story for the front page Howie says the Courier has no difficulty finding local news. This task is made even easier when national or international stories are made local. People must have been talking about the Queen Mother's death down at the pub because she featured on the front page of the Courier. The story was made local by relating it to her last visit to Ballarat. The war in Afghanistan became local news with front-page coverage of a Ballarat family that had a son involved in the conflict. Janowitz supports Howie's view that there is never a shortage of news, "Into the typical community newspaper office flows a steady stream of professional and amateur publicity releases about community and city news" (1967:70). Frawley claims this flow of news into the newspaper's office makes for lazy journalism, "Country newspapers fighting an unrelenting cost-price squeeze are sitting ducks for PR copy which floods in daily. Space which should be devoted to news is taken by press releases usually supplied by well organized and financed government departments, organizations and companies" (1987:8). Ellery disputes this view saying that press releases would only be used directly for a meeting time and place, if it warranted a story a journalist would be assigned to conduct a proper inquiry. With an editorial staff of forty the Courier should be in a better position to provide credible and thoroughly researched news stories than a smaller, less well resourced newspaper.

Does regional press avoid controversy?
On the question of which local news stories are published the question of controversy arises. Ward claims, "the rural press tends not to report social and political conflict within local communities" (1985:206). Janowitz argues that regional papers will be happy to stir up controversy between the local community and an outside organization but will not encourage or participate in local controversy, preferring instead to promote common values (1967:60). On the same topic, Hippocrates bemoans the demise of the "crusading editorial" in regional papers that are too afraid of offending (1988:193). The Ballarat community is currently divided over the issue of water fluoridation. The Courier has not shied away from presenting both sides of the debate both in letters to the editor and news stories and was even brave enough to take a stance in its editorial. The Courier was prepared to say, "We fall more in favour of fluoridation than not it is time for the debate to continue" (Howie:2002). It is certainly not a 'crusading editorial' but it does buy into what has become a very controversial topic in the local community. It would seem the critics are wrong when it comes to claims regional papers wont report on local controversy, maybe it is a fine line. Howie isn't very convincing when he says, "We won't push the issue any further, we've had our say, it's for the community to debate". Ellery explains further, "The regional press wants to be seen as supportive of its community. Encouraging self destructive division just for the sake of stirring up controversy is sensationalism and is not a successful strategy for a regional paper in the long run".

Constraints imposed by advertisers
Another of the constraints that regional papers must deal with is dependence on advertising. The Courier, like all commercial media, must sell advertising space to survive. Mowbray argues that advertisers have a large amount of leverage over news content, "Local newspapers are not well placed to risk alienating their chief or sole source of income" (1988:45). Howie disagrees citing the example of the gaming machine debate in Ballarat. Recent studies have shown that Ballarat has one of the highest number of gaming machines per-capita than any other area in Victoria. Conflict arose between the welfare agencies' concerns over these figures and the stance of the gaming venues, major advertising clients of the Courier. Howie claims the advertisers exerted a definite pressure. They were allowed to give their view but Howie says, "If it's a valid story we'd publish it, ultimately we are there for the reader". Interestingly, when asked if advertisers would ever pull their advertisements Howie replied that they might threaten to but "they usually don't because they need you more than you need them". If we can believe the newspaper's editor then the Ballarat Courier does actually put journalistic integrity above commercial gain.

Ballarat Courier as important part of its community
Many of the criticisms of rural press have been refuted in this paper. This might be because much of the available comment is at least ten years old and outdated. Perhaps it is because the Ballarat Courier really is as exceptional as its staff will tell you it is. A 1998 panel discussion on community journalism in the United States offers a more up-to-date analysis. Pulitzer Prize winning editor Bernard Stein surmises, "Big media makes people feel powerless. What we do is crucial to preserving our country as a real democracy" (oswego:1998).

In concluding Ellery says, "regional papers are seen as a part of the community because they run their children's sports results, they run classified ads for their births, deaths and marriages and are read by their friends so references to them in the paper become a very strong talking point. We are dealing with the stuff of the lives of the people of our community". The Courier is a vital part of the Ballarat community. It fulfills its mission by providing a quality newspaper that is responsible and accountable. Like all commercial media it feels the constraints of advertisers and the fear of controversy but it overcomes these limitations to offer an informative and independent news service. It is a journal of record and a forum for community debate, a mirror to society's views with a high level of accountability. The Ballarat Courier is a quality newspaper and an integral part of the community which it serves, just ask its staff, they know what they are talking about.

Reference List

The Age

Ballarat Courier

Bendigo Advertiser

Courtney, M. (1980) "Perceptions of Political Bias in Newspapers". In Turbayne D. (ed.) The Media and Politics in Australia. Tasmania: University of Tasmania

Frawley, R. (1979) "The Provincial Press" Media Information Australia 14: 8-15

Gaziano, C. (1985) "Neighborhood Newspapers and Neighborhood Leaders: Influences on Agenda Setting and Definitions of Issues." Communications Research 12.4: 568-594

Herald Sun
Hippocrates, C. (1988) "Suburban Newspapers: Australia's New Journalism." Australian Journalism Review 10: 189-197

Jackson, I. (1971) The Provincial Press and the Community. Manchester: The University Press.

Janowitz, M. (1967) The Community Press in an Urban Setting. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Lauterer, J. (2000) Community Journalism. Iowa: Iowa State University Press

McQeen, H. (1978) Australia's Media Monopolies. Victoria: Widescope International Publishers

Mowbray, M. (1988) "So They've Hijacked Our Media: The Problem of the Local Press." Media Information Australia, 49: 41-48

Murphy, D. (1976) The Silent Watchdog ­ The Press in Local Politics. London: Constable

Royal Commission on the Press: Analysis of Newspaper Content. London: Her Majesty's Stationary Office

Ward, I. (1985) "The Country Press and Rural Conservatism". In PR Hay (ed.) Essays on Victorian Politics. Warrnambool: Warrnambool Institute Press, 199-210

(24 April 1998) "Community Journalism: Expectations and Realities" Center for Community Journalism, Oswego State University. http//www.oswego.edu/ccj/panel.html. 4 April 2002.

Author contact: bedford@netconnect.com.au

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